Apple to reopen 4 California stores beginning today
You’ll have to drive a while to find one of the handful serving customers
As California begins the process of relaxing the coronavirus lockdown restrictions and reopening its economy, Apple is among the companies getting set to open the doors on its popular retail stores after two months of closures.
But, that doesn’t mean business as usual for Apple’s 53 California stores. And you will have to take some logistics into consideration before heading out to see the new iPhone SE in person, or have your Macbook or iPad looked at by one of Apple’s in-store Geniuses.
Apple said four of its stores in the state—Monterery’s Del Monte store, the Vintage Faire location in Modesto, Fresno’s Fashion Faire location and Bakersfield’s Valley Plaza store—will all open at 11 a.m. today. The Monterey and Fresno stores will be open until 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday, while the Modesto and Bakersfield stores will remain open until 7 p.m. those days.
On Sundays, all four stores will open at noon, with the Monterey store closing at 5 p.m., and the other three locations closing at 6 p.m.
All stores in the Bay Area, including those in San Jose, the East Bay and San Francisco, will remain closed for the time being. Apple posted a link on its website where customers can find out which of its stores are open.
The stores that are reopening will do so under conditions meant to reduce contact between customers as much as possible, and maintain safety policies that have been in place across much of California since shelter-in-place efforts and social-distancing practices went into effect in March. All customers will have to have their temperatures checked, and put on a face mask before entering a store. Apple said it will provide face masks to any customer that needs one, limit the number of customers that can be inside a store at a particular time, and conduct multiple store cleanings during the day.
It will be a big change for Apple. The company has always promoted its stores as more like town plazas, and are famous for being filled with customers browsing, picking up and experimenting with iPhones, iPads and other Apple products, and being in close contact with Apple tech support Geniuses.
“Our commitment is to only move forward with a reopening once we’re confident we can safely return to serving customers from our store,” said Deidre O’Brien, Apple’s vice president of people, in outlining the company’s retail reopening plans. “And a store opening in no way means that we won’t take the preventative step of closing it again should local conditions warrant.”
In addition to the four stores it plans to reopen Wednesday, Apple is offering curbside pickup of products, and appointments for Genius support at its stores in Roseville, Sacramento and San Luis Obispo. The company said those locations will soon be open for in-store shopping.